The Legacy of Rowan Chase
by WildcatLizzie83
Summary: Chase contemplates where he now stands as a doctor and a person after his father’s death.


_**Disclaimer: **All characters belong to David Shore, et al. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don't sue me. I'm a poor college student who has no money anyway.**  
Author's Notes: **The more I wrote of this the more I wanted to use the word legacy the way that it's used in sorority life. In sorority life and recruitment, a legacy to a certain chapter is a woman whose grandmother, mother, or sister is a member of the same sorority. For example: I would be a legacy to Alpha Delta Pi if my mother or grandmothers were members, but any of my daughters will be legacies. Clear as mud? Perfect. Welcome to the world of sorority recruitment._

_---_

Life was never easy growing up as the child of Dr. Rowan Chase, world renowned rheumatologist.

Moving out from under his father's enormous shadow was part of the reason why Chase had originally entered the seminary. Becoming a man of faith would mean that no one could ever compare him to his father, a man of science.

His faith wavered, though, as he helped counsel a young couple with the inevitable death of their four-year-old son. When Father Brandeis had told him that the little boy had lost his battle with leukemia, Chase realized that God didn't heal people; people healed people under the guide of God's hand.

When Chase left the seminary and went to his father with his plans of medical school, Rowan had been overjoyed; he'd always wanted his only son to follow in his footsteps. Rowan, however, was disappointed when Chase declared a specialty in intensive care instead of rheumatology. In terms of internal medicine, intensive care was as far away from the mundane of rheumatology as he could get.

From there, Chase threw himself into his studies, choosing to study in Sydney instead of Melbourne, though his father's reputation seemed to follow him regardless. Professors and doctors who supervised his rotations were always asking about his father and what the elder Chase's latest breakthrough was. There was never an "excellent work, Robert." It was always "not quite at the same level as your father yet, are you?"

When Chase learned of the fellowship with Dr. House in Princeton, he told no one, determined to do this on his own. His father had paid for all of his bills while he was in medical school, and for once, he was going to make a name for himself without the influence of his family name. He was finally going to be Dr. Robert Chase, not Dr. Rowan Chase's son.

He had barely even sat down in House's office before he was informed that he had the position simply because of who his father was.

So much for making a name for himself.

When his father had shown up a little more than a year ago during the leprosy case, it had turned into a pissing match between Drs. Chase and Chase. And House had simply fueled the fire.

Had House known when Chase was loading his father's luggage into the cab that his father was dying of terminal lung cancer?

Probably.

Even if Chase never intended to fulfill his promise of returning home for a brief time, he still couldn't quite wrap his brain around the fact that his father knew that this was more than likely his last moment with his son.

He'd gotten the news of his father's death more than twelve hours ago. So, where did that leave him now? Chase wondered idly, sitting out on his apartment balcony with his feet propped up against the railing and a glass of scotch in his hand.

Even in death, his father's shadow was still going to be there.

But he was a good doctor; a damn good doctor. He handled the pressure and the fast-paced work environment that came with working in intensive care with ease; which was not something that every doctor could say. Not even every intensivist could say that.

He could deny his father and tell himself that he was the one that got himself to where he is today on his own. But even he could admit that it was a lie.

It was his father that drove him: drove him to do his best, to _be_ his best, to be everything that Rowan Chase wasn't.

Even though he tried hard to be the antithesis of Rowan Chase, it was his father that brought him to where he was today.

He was the legacy of Rowan Chase.


End file.
